Switch
by A.E. Hall
Summary: The Doctor finds himself face to face with Rose once again. However, Martha has somehow disappeared. As the Doctor would say: "What!" Post-Season 3. FR challenge story.


The Doctor looked surprised.

Rose didn't know that the Doctor could look surprised.

"What?" he asked in that high-pitched way that she had missed so very much. He paced the TARDIS with an incredulous expression. "What?!"

"Aren't you going to hug me or something? Didn't you miss me?"

"Yes, of course, but the logistics of what you're suggesting- that should be impossible. The very idea." He ruffled his hair with skinny fingers. He stopped, smiled and approached to wrap his arms around her tightly. "You're really back."

"Really, really back," she replied and smiled into his shoulder.

"But who switched with you? You said someone had to switch- they had to switch with you," he pulled away and scratched his head again. "What?"

Rose rolled her eyes and smiled. "It was really strange. I was just going to work, same as usual and this woman stopped me. She said she knew you- said she knew the doctor. I thought it was another of your fanclubs or something. She kept bugging me and I finally said I'd get a drink with her."

The Doctor shook his head, befuddled. He still half-believed that this was an apparition standing in front of him.

"She said she knew how I could go back- that she was from your universe and if we switched then I could stay with you. She got all teary-eyed and said you needed me. I almost didn't believe her, but she just looked at me and smiled, and next thing I knew I was on the TARDIS with you." Tears started falling from her blue eyes, "I thought I was dreaming or something."

The Doctor stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder.

Rose leaned in.

The Doctor leaned in.

Rose could feel his breath on her wet cheeks.

Suddenly he pulled back with an energetic half-jump. "I forgot about Martha. You've got to meet Martha. You will just love her. Saved the world once- well helped me save the world," he corrected with a twinkle in his eye.

Rose followed closely behind the Doctor as he went back into one of the rooms of the TARDIS. When he opened the correct door, she looked around curiously. Eyes asking questions that lips wouldn't. _Who was Martha?_

The room was empty. There was a piece of folded paper sitting on the ground. The Doctor bent to pick it up, half-knowing already what it would say. However his logic protested against the idea, it still took root in his mind like a weed.

_Doctor,_

_By now, you've probably already figured out what's going on. Hopefully Rose is with you now- maybe even reading over your shoulder and wondering who this Martha person is. She doesn't know it, but we've met before- or we will meet in the future. I suppose I'm still not very handy with figuring time out. _

_You may be asking why I did this- Why I left my world, my comfort zone to do something so irrational and implausible. I'm not sure I know the answer. My family is better now that they've had the year to recover from witnessing the Master and his destruction. I hope you'll just take the time to tell them I won't be coming back. _

_I kept thinking of when you first told me about Rose…I was so jealous, but eventually I realized that nothing I could do could compete anyway. Maybe that's why I did it after all. I wanted to see your heart full again._

_So just go out and enjoy your life Doctor- enjoy Rose while you have her. _

_Love,_

_Martha_

"But how on earth did she do it?" the Doctor muttered to himself and folded the letter up. He placed it in his pocket and turned back to Rose. He couldn't help but smile when he looked at her, even while knowing it had cost Martha everything to bring her back.

"So," Rose queried, wiping at her eyes, that dreadful human substance called mascara staining her cheeks. "Where we going?"

The Doctor grinned and strode back with Rose at his side. _Like it should be…_And he couldn't help but feel exhilarated that they were together again.

Later, in a moment of solitude, the Doctor would take the letter out and examine it again. There was something so impossible about the whole scenario. The idea of switching places with someone from another dimension would take a lot of energy. _The person instigating the switch would just be kil- _he hit the brakes, thoughts jumbling over each other in the wreckage.

And then he felt it; the raw emptiness where Martha had been. There was nothing but blackness and the scattered pinpricks of light that were memories. The rush of tangible pain was startling. The Doctor knelt in the half-lit TARDIS, gasping for a breath. The letter shook in his hand. It was a paper declaration of loss. A loss that he hadn't realized he cared about.

He glanced down at the handwriting. He read the first line his gaze fell upon- needing to feel that she was still alive somewhere- needing to imagine her voice repeating the words that had spilled from her pen.

_I kept thinking of when you first told me about Rose…_

"Oh Martha," he gasped, hands trembling. This was the Doctor he tried so hard to hide from everyone- and here she'd drawn it out with precision. Like the physician she was, drawing a blood sample to examine and discard. The proficiency with which she brought about one of his rare break-downs was astonishing.

His lips pressed to the paper. His voice was raw and angry.

"If I had known it would end like this, I never would have told you."


End file.
